My new knight ultralight was delivered today. I've never laid hands on a muzzleloader before today, and I don't know anyone who shoots an inline, so I have some painfully simple beginner questions. I tried calling Knight and it's after business hours and their mailbox is full (no surprise there). During the sales process I called and left a message asking for a follow up call and they never bothered to call me back. Despite this I still gave them my business. So here I am. Questions are bolded for people who don't want to read all this crap.
1. First of all. Anything special to know about cleaning the gun? It's the nitride model. Seems like I just strip out the breech plug, and clean all the oil and grease out of the barrel, off the breech plug, and the bolt. Then re-grease the breech plug threads and reassemble? Is there anywhere that I need to oil on the bolt or gun itself?
1. I installed the bolt and I was expecting it to feel mostly like a center fire rifle (my tikka ctr is buttery) and initially thought I had installed it incorrectly. Is it normal for there to be a fair bit of resistance when working the bolt? Especially after the trigger is pulled and hammer is dropped, it takes a lot of force to work the bolt up and back. And there is a lot of chunky clicking noises along the way. When moving the bolt back down, it makes a chirping/squeaking sound like it should be oiled, but the manual makes no mention of where or how to oil the bolt. It just seems to be in a rough state for a top of the line product.
3. While I'm on the subject, will it damage the gun to dry fire it? It is so difficult to find information about "muzzleloaders" because there are so many different kinds, and adding "knight" or "inline" to my searches doesn't filter out information about other types.
4. Do I need a special solvent if I'm using Blackhorn 209? I was recommended the solvent and did order some but it's backordered, and wondering if I can just use whatever it is I found at my local shop in the meantime. September is briskly approaching and I want to get up to speed on this thing ASAP.
1. First of all. Anything special to know about cleaning the gun? It's the nitride model. Seems like I just strip out the breech plug, and clean all the oil and grease out of the barrel, off the breech plug, and the bolt. Then re-grease the breech plug threads and reassemble? Is there anywhere that I need to oil on the bolt or gun itself?
1. I installed the bolt and I was expecting it to feel mostly like a center fire rifle (my tikka ctr is buttery) and initially thought I had installed it incorrectly. Is it normal for there to be a fair bit of resistance when working the bolt? Especially after the trigger is pulled and hammer is dropped, it takes a lot of force to work the bolt up and back. And there is a lot of chunky clicking noises along the way. When moving the bolt back down, it makes a chirping/squeaking sound like it should be oiled, but the manual makes no mention of where or how to oil the bolt. It just seems to be in a rough state for a top of the line product.
3. While I'm on the subject, will it damage the gun to dry fire it? It is so difficult to find information about "muzzleloaders" because there are so many different kinds, and adding "knight" or "inline" to my searches doesn't filter out information about other types.
4. Do I need a special solvent if I'm using Blackhorn 209? I was recommended the solvent and did order some but it's backordered, and wondering if I can just use whatever it is I found at my local shop in the meantime. September is briskly approaching and I want to get up to speed on this thing ASAP.